Movie Description
Mr. Holland (Alec Guinness) has supervised the bank's bullion run for years. He is fussy and unnecessarily overprotective, but everyone knows he is absolutely trustworthy. And so, on the day the bullion truck is robbed, he is the last person to be suspected. But there is another side to Mr. Holland--he is also Dutch, the leader of THE LAVENDER HILL MOB.
Prolific Ealing writer T.E.B. Clarke won an Oscar for his deft script for THE LAVENDER HILL MOB. But he was helped greatly by the precise direction and impeccable timing of director Charles Crichton, and by the brilliance of Alec Guinness's performance. When he tries to recruit Mr. Pendlebury (Stanley Holloway) as Pendlebury chips away at one of his sculptures, Guinness circles Holloway, playfully seducing him into the idea of robbery and, as Holloway finally understands the proposition, Guinness looks back over his shoulder like some elfin Lucifer. When the mob goes over its robbery plans, Guinness insists on a detail and Shorty (Alfie Bass) acknowledges that Guinness is the boss. Guinness, concentrating, agrees. Then, as he relaxes and eases back in his chair, Guinness sheds his years of servitude to the bank--Dutch Holland is indeed the boss.
| Credits | | Cast: | Sidney James, Stanley Holloway |
Notes
DVD Features:
Region 1
Keep Case
Full Frame
Audio:
Mono - English
Additional Release Material:
Trailers
Interactive Features:
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Biographies - 1. Alec Guinness - Star, Theatrical release: June 1951 (London).
Theatrical release: October 15, 1951 (New York).
THE LAVENDER HILL MOB is number 17 on the British Film Institute’s list of the Top 100 British Films of the 20th Century.
T.E.B. Clarke won an Oscar for his script for THE LAVENDER HILL MOB. His other notable Ealing comedies include two more collaborations with Charles Crichton--HUE AND CRY and THE TITFIELD THUNDERBOLT--and Henry Cornelius’s PASSPORT TO PIMLICO.
Alec Guinness was deservedly nominated for an Oscar for his performance as Dutch Holland. But he was not to win the Academy Award until 1957, when he received the Oscar for his extraordinary incarnation of Colonel Nicholson in THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI.
Georges Auric (1899-1983) had a long and very distinguished career as a film music composer. In Britain, as well as working on several films with Charles Crichton, he composed music for Jack Clayton, Robert Hamer, Henry Cornelius, and Thorold Dickinson. The Hollywood directors for whom he composed scores included John Huston, Anatole Litvak, Otto Preminger, and William Wyler. And in France, he wrote scores for Max Ophuls and Rene Clair; for Henri-Georges Clouzot, and Rene Clement; for Roger Vadim and Georges Franju; for Jules Dassin, Julien Duvivier, and Jean Delannoy; and above all for Jean Cocteau.
Audrey Hepburn, still only 22 years old, has a small part in THE LAVENDER HILL MOB. She can be seen briefly, but indelibly, in the openning sequence. She is only two years away from her breakthrough in William Wyler's ROMAN HOLIDAY.
Robert Shaw made his screen debut with a small part in THE LAVENDER HILL MOB.
In his 1995 memoir MY AMERICAN JOURNEY, General Colin Powell lists THE LAVENDER HILL MOB as one of his favorite films.
Editorial Reviews
"...Relatively light-hearted and easy-going..."
Sight and Sound - Philip Kemp (10/01/2002)
Awards
1952Academy AwardsBest Original ScreenplayT.E.B. Clarke
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